Leasehold can the management company Ltd Co be disbanded?

pastmybest

I am one of 4 owners who each own an equal share of the management company (Limited Company) in our flats. However the person who has been doing the accounts for the Ltd Co is moving and no one else wants to get involed due to the accounting work needed with a Ltd Co.

So can the Ltd Co just be stopped and all of us just have a more informal arrangement without the scary Ltd Co rules?

Fire_Fox

What is specified in your long lease? Have you considered paying an accountant?

pastmybest

Nothing in the lease document and doubt the neighbours will pay for anything if it can be avoided. They have proven this time and time again with the upkeep of the building. The trouble is two live in owners, me and one other on pension with no money, and two rented from buy to let owners. The latter only care about getting in their monthly rents.

Fire_Fox

pastmybest wrote: »

Nothing in the lease document and doubt the neighbours will pay for anything if it can be avoided. They have proven this time and time again with the upkeep of the building. The trouble is two live in owners, me and one other on pension with no money, and two rented from buy to let owners. The latter only care about getting in their monthly rents.

There must be something in the long lease about the arrangements for maintenance! What does it say?

Richard_Webster

If the freehold title belongs to the company, then by dissolving it you will lose your freehold and have to buy it back from the crown - and in the meantime your leases will be difficult to sell because there will be no freeholder.

pastmybest

Firefox

Thanks for helping and I will re-read the lease but it will have to be tomorrow as I am incapable at this time of the evening. I am a morning person!

pastmybest

Richard_Webster wrote: »

If the freehold title belongs to the company, then by dissolving it you will lose your freehold and have to buy it back from the crown - and in the meantime your leases will be difficult to sell because there will be no freeholder.

Even though each owner has a share certificate in the management company and as such each owner is a director in the management company? It sounds like a nightmare so perhaps it may be better to stay with it and get accountants quotes. I know of one just retired a few doors away but not sureif they are looking for a few bob?

Any idea what one would charge as there are very very few transactions go through. Insurance and the odd maintenance work.

Doozergirl

If you don't produce returns for Companies House they will dissolve the company.

The management of the building has to be run in a professional fashion if the lease dictates it.

I'm just going through it with a flat I have bought and have been on the phone to the Leasehold Advisory Service (nice people - call them, the advice is free!). They have tried to manage things on an ad hoc basis - the Right to Manage company has been dissolved and the flats are now unmortgageable without proper management. Luckily it was just RTM; I own the freehold. When RTM is dissolved, management reverts to the freeholder so the invoices for service charge are going out tomorrow and we start all over again.

Richard_Webster

Even though each owner has a share certificate in the management company and as such each owner is a director in the management company? It sounds like a nightmare so perhaps it may be better to stay with it and get accountants quotes. I know of one just retired a few doors away but not sureif they are looking for a few bob?

Any idea what one would charge as there are very very few transactions go through. Insurance and the odd maintenance work.

What a lot of people seem to do is file a dormant company return - which costs about £15 per year and then arrange things informally between when it comes to work and insurance - if everyone is happy you don't need a separate company bank account.

However the company continues to own the freehold. This is better than having up to 4 individual names on the freehold title - one for each flat - and then when one person sells his flat he has to get the other three to sign to transfer the "share in freehold". It only takes one to have disappeared because his flat has been repossessed or won't sign because he has an argument with the others over something else, and you are stuck.

If you have a problem with an individual not paying up or whatever then you reactivate the company and do everything properly - pass resolutions by a majority to levy service charges etc - but you often don't need to do that and it works because people usually see the common sense of minimising costs.

pastmybest

Dooozergirl

Thanks for your thoughts.

I have called the Leasehold Advisory people and yes I agree they have been great. I think my best plan is to get an accountant. It seems to be me again trying to sort matters out because of the nature of other owners. Happy for someone else to do the work but not wishing to spend a penny. So frustrating as it could be a really nice place but with more being spend on the upkeep so glad I am getting out hopefully soon.